Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been adopted in many industries for different applications. For example, RFID technology is deployed to track locations of items in an operational environment. In particular, an RFID tag is attached to an item retainer that retains the items. An RFID reader is operated to read the RFID tag. Based on reading the RFID tag, a determination is made that the item retainer is located in proximity to the RFID reader.
In many operational environments, the RFID reader may read multiple RFID tags within a read cycle. Some of the RFID tags may be intended to be read by the RFID reader to facilitate location tracking. However, reading the remaining RFID tags may not be intended and may, in certain situations, result in false or incorrect location tracking. For example, a particular RFID reader may cross-read an RFID tag of an item retainer progressing through an adjacent read zone of another RFID reader. Because of the cross-read, the item retainer may be mistakenly identified as progressing through the read zone of the particular RFID reader.
Different reasons may exist for the unintentional RFID reads. These reasons include, for example, radio frequency (RF) reflections and obstructions from objects, orientation of an RFID tag relative to an RFID reader, and/or proximity of two RFID readers and relative location of an RFID tag to these readers. While post-processing of RFID read events may increase the accuracy of location tracking, such accuracy may be additionally or alternatively increased by reducing the likelihood and/or frequency of unintentional RFID reads.